Exploration of Combining Strategy on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language Among American High School Students

Among different teaching methods in second language teaching, there are five different core relations： the relations between language and speech, between oral and written language, between foreign and native language, between integrity and individuality, between the use of foreign language and the development of intelligence. With a view on the entire structure of Chinese teaching and learning as a second language among American high school students and through scientifically conducting the five relations and subdividing the teaching purpose, contents, and objects, this paper will elaborate the strategy on selecting and combining different teaching methods in the whole Chinese teaching and learning process. The purpose of this paper is to greatly develop the effectiveness in teaching and learning Chinese as a second language through selecting appropriate strategies and integrating various advantages according to the teaching purpose, content, and the object.

The comparison study of Chinese and American secondary school students’knowledge structure—an experimental research based on concept map assessment technique

A concept map is a schematic device for representing a set of concept meanings embedded in a framework of propositions.It can be used to evaluate students’knowledge structure.This article introduces the comparative study of Chinese and American secondary school students’knowledge structure.They are compared quantitatively and qualitatively in terms of mean score,individual proposition scores,proposition choice and map structure.The results indicate that students’knowledge structures in the two countries are remarkably different.Compared with American students,Chinese students’ability to take an exam is stronger and their mean score is higher.However,Chinese students need to improve their general knowledge and creativity although their basic knowledge is solid and they are better in mastering discipline knowledge and knowledge application.

Building Bridges in a Third Space:A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experiences of Teaching Chinese in American Chinese Schools

This study explores the lived experiences of Chinese teachers in American Chinese Schools.Max van Manen’s methodology for hermeneutic phenomenological research provides a framework for the study,and the philosophical writings of Heidegger,Gadamer,and Derrida guide the textual interpretations.Pedagogical voices of Aoki,Pinar,and Greene,and cultural journeys of Hongyu Wang and Xin Li reveal possibilities for understanding the experiences of Chinese teachers,as the question is addressed:“What is the meaning of teaching Chinese in American Chinese Schools?”Ten Chinese teachers engaged in a series of open-ended conversations.The conversations illuminate the experience of Confucian teaching meeting American pedagogies around two main themes.First,in following the metaphor of Chinese knotwork,the teachers speak of their struggles and challenges between Chinese Confucian and American pedagogies,reflect on splitting and splicing the knots through changing and adjusting their method of Confucian teaching.Second,they tell of the experiences of building bridges in a third space through dialogically connecting the different cultures and pedagogies in order to seek the appropriate way of teaching and learning Chinese well in American Chinese Schools.

Post-War American Poetry:An Environmental Perspective

This essay describes the connections between the important groups of innovative,avant-garde,and experimental poetry and poetics emerging in the United States since the Vietnam War:language writing,Flarf,conceptualism,identity poetries,and environmental poetry.The method shows an example of how to look at writing through both close reading and from a distance.Understanding the variety of schools of the United States poetry since the Vietnam War to reveal their similarities,connections,and differences can only be accomplished if we take multiple points of view.No single perspective is sufficient to define the field.This essay first uses a third person description of the innovative poetry schools of the period.Next,it shows the changes in style that took place using the author’s first-person perspective as an editor,publisher,and writer of poetry and poetics.Then the essay shows the comparative position of those United States schools related to Chinese poetry of the same period as revealed in an experimental poetry translation anthology-The Reciprocal Translation Project.Finally,a graphical view of the United States schools shows their sequence.Since there is a wide range of viewpoints in poetry styles and poets who vary in age,styles,and aesthetics,it is difficult to judge an individual poem based solely on close reading.Adding to close reading,reading at a distance includes elucidation,clarification,social structure,and interactions among individuals to assist readers in reading poetry.This network of poetry establishes both a method for poetics and an example of how to reduce distorted analyses of poetry/poetics from a single critic.